


At Least We're Together

by Bmxtthxw



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Temporary Character Death, canon typical temporary character death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:33:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26412721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bmxtthxw/pseuds/Bmxtthxw
Summary: Nicky and Joe were hands for hire. They did the jobs they were offered, pissed off plenty of people when they decided which jobs crossed lines, and they were fine doing that. Until one day that caught up with them. Now they're stuck as immortals with a group of three other immortals who are varying degrees of tired of the world.That's fine. They can work with that. At least they're together.(Aka: the au where Nicky and Joe are the new ones instead of Nile)
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 24
Kudos: 203





	At Least We're Together

“ Yusuf. Yusuf, wake up. Yusuf, fucking get up.” Joe let out a sleepy noise that in any other situation, Nicky knew he’d find adorable. This was not one of those situations. “Yusuf, if you do not get your ass up right now, I’m snapping all your art supplies in two.” It was an empty threat and they were both aware of that, but it caught Joe’s attention.

“What’d I do t’ deserve that?” Joe pouted, squinting up at Nicky in the dark of the room they shared. “What’s going on? Why are you up? The sun’s not even up.”

“Remember those assholes we pissed off last week?”

“The alcohol guys or the drug guys?” Joe made no effort to get up, watching as Nicky moved around the room as quietly as he could manage, packing the few items they had brought with them.

“Drug guys. I went to the lobby a couple minutes ago and they were asking about us. The kid at the desk didn’t sound like he was gonna hold out much longer and the guys brought friends.” That got Joe up and moving, grabbing his gun from Nicky and waiting by the door to listen for anyone coming up. Nicky and Joe were not necessarily good people. Compared to others who did their job, other mercenaries, other runners, they could maybe be considered good. They tried to do good, in between the shit they got paid to do. This unfortunately led to multiple enemies, people who had tried to work with them only to get screwed over when Nicky and Joe decided the things they were hired to do went against the limits they had created for themselves. These were some of those enemies.

It wasn’t the first time the two were having to sneak out to avoid getting caught by enemies and they doubted it would be the last, but they weren’t in the business of making it easy for enemies like this to get to them. As soon as Nicky had all their stuff together, he joined Joe by the door, waiting just a second, a glance shared between them, just a check in,  _ I’m here, I’m awake, I’m ready, let’s go _ , before they walked out, Nicky taking the lead with Joe watching his back. They got as far as the stairs before they ran into anyone.

“Bit early to be checking out of a hotel, isn’t it, Nicky?” There were more of them than there were of Nicky and Joe but for now, the pair had the higher ground and had a faster way to an exit. They had hope they’d walk out of this. 

“We’ve a late plane. A uh… how do you say, red-eye flight? You’re in our way, and I would really rather not miss it. I’m sure you have a job to do too.”

“Oh don’t worry. We don’t have to go far for our job. In fact, it’s rather close.” Nicky could hear Joe clicking the safety off his gun, shifting just enough to shoot over his shoulder if he had to. Nicky stayed still. He wasn’t about to give these assholes any easier access to his partner.

“That so?”

“Yeah, see… you two were hired for something last week, and the way we’ve heard it, you skipped out on the job before it ever even started… Actually, the way we heard, no one was there to get the job started except a couple of dead guys.”

“Hm. Interesting. Maybe they shouldn’t have gotten kids involved then.” He could feel Joe inching closer to him, a hand ghosting the small of his back, ready to run. “They knew our rules. It is not our fault they were stupid and thought they could slip things past us.”

“Well, looks like they’re a little tired of you two leaving messes. We were asked to clean it up.”

“What a shame… Joe, we might be a little late for the plane.” There are three guns drawn on him the second he starts moving, pushing Joe back towards the door. It was the second floor, so a window wasn’t the ideal way out but it was possible, but even trapped in the hallway was better than being trapped in the stairwell. The gunfire starts before the two get far, Joe ducking into the nearest cover with Nicky not far behind.

The two of them couldn’t say how the fight was going past the fact that they were outnumbered and the ones after them did not care about minimizing damage the way they did. Joe was looking for a way out (he wouldn’t find one, a part of him was well aware, but he couldn’t not look, couldn’t at least try to get himself and Nicky out) but by the time he looked back, tried to suggest a route to Nicky, Nicky was down, falling back into Joe’s legs. That bit takes just slightly too long to process, the fact that Nicky was down, the fact that it meant there was someone in a position that made their cover less helpful than they thought, the fact that  _ Nicky was down _ . It wasn’t until Joe reached out for Nicky’s hand, reaching to pull him farther back, that he realized that Nicky wasn’t getting back up either.

“Nico? Nicoló, wake up. Please, Nicoló, get up.” It was quiet, whispered really, barely heard over the sounds of the other men in the hall, but Joe couldn’t hear anything else over the racing heartbeat that no longer matched his husband’s. “Nico, I cannot finish this fight without you, get up, or I swear I’m going to burn your hoodies.” He’s stopped paying attention to the others around them, focused entirely on trying to get Nicky to respond. He doesn’t even notice when the fight ends, doesn’t notice the bullet that makes itself a place in him because his heart is already gone. The sounds of the fight fade as the men realize the lovers have stopped fighting back. 

The kid at the desk said nothing as the men passed by him, pretended he hadn’t heard all the gunfire. These weren’t men he wanted to anger. The hotel went quiet.

Three minutes later, Nicky gasped his way back to life. By the time he processed that his husband was dead beside him, Joe was coughing, spitting out a bullet. 

“Think we’re still going to be late for the plane?” Nicky choked on something between a laugh and a sob and clung to Joe.

**Author's Note:**

> I just decided at work one night that this would be a fun AU and made my friend listen to me about it for a week and a half and now the universe (and those who choose to read this) do too. Have fun!


End file.
